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Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate
The General Intelligence Service (GIS) ( / ), often called the Mukhabarat ( / ), is an Egyptian intelligence agency responsible for providing national security intelligence, both domestically and transnationally, with a counter-terrorism focus.Sullivan and Jones (2008): 33 The GIS is part of the Egyptian intelligence community, together with the Office of Military Intelligence Services and Reconnaissance ( / ) and the State Security Investigations Service (SSIS) ( / ). History The decision to set up an Egyptian intelligence service was taken by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954, and placed under the commande of Zakaria Mohieddin (ar:%D8%B2%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7 %D9%85%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%8A %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86). However, the agency's rose in importance when Nasser assigned its command to Salah Nasr (ar:%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD %D9%86%D8%B5%D8%B1), who held the post of director of the GIS from 1957 to 1967. Under Nasr's directorate, the GIS relocated to its own building and established separate divisions for Radio, Computer, Forgery and Black Operations. To cover the agencty's expenses, Nasr set up Al Nasr Company, ostensibly an import-export firm, as a front. For several years the name of GIS director was a secret only known to high officials and government Newspapers chief editors, However General Omar Soliman ar:%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1 %D8%B3%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86 who became the Chief of the GIS since 1993 till today, was the first one the break this taboo , his name was released many times in the press before he himself became a Known face in media after being envoyed by the Egyptian president Mubarak to Israel, USA and Ghaza in many occasions. 1957, Moscow-Soviet Egyptian heads of state meeting . ''Salah Nasr director of EGID, seen at the seventh seat on Nasser's right side''' Achievements In spite of the rule which says "success in intelligence world is a buried secret while failure is a world wide scandal" the GIS did achieve many successes a few of which were released and dramatized in Egyptian TV and Cinema # The GIS managed to plant Egyptian Agent among Jewish immigrants to Israel. That Agent, "Raafat el-Haggan", managed to live 18 years in Israel without being discovered. In those years, he established a network of Spies in Various fields of Israeli community. # In 1970 the GIS managed to hunt an Israeli Oil Rig while being shipped from Canada to Sinai (occupied at that time). Clandestine GIS agents and frogmen succeeded in tracing the Oil Rig to 'Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and planted sets of explosives, had them detonated and crippled the rig. Ironically, this was done while the city was full, not only of MOSSAD agents protecting the Oil Rig, but also while it was full of CIA agents who were guarding the NASA astronauts in their visit to "Côte d'Ivoire", this operation was published in 1985 under the name of Al -Haffar operation it was supervised at that time by EGID director " Ameen Heweedy" (1921-2009) # Between 1968 and 1972 GIS managed to infiltrate residence of American diplomatic delegation in Cairo and plant tape recorders (refer to reference 1) # Perhaps a major success of the GIS was handling the Egyptian "strategic deception plan" that was carried out from 01/1970 to 10/1973 and aimed to conceal the Egyptian plans to launch massive operation to free occupied Sinai on 06/10/1973 starting the Yom Kippur war (6th of October war)- the plan included planting false information and hidden implied data in Egyptian president Sadat's speeches and newspapers Articles -For example the GIS prepared to the military operations and evacuated complete sections of Cairo hospitals to be ready for receiving war casualties, this evacuation that took place few days before the war started, was done after declaring false information that those hospitals were infected with Tetanus. The plan included a major operation whose details are still not published. This operation aimed at getting detailed information of American Spy satellites covering Middle East, by knowing exact trajectories and timing of those Satellites the GIS prepared complicated logistic movement schedules for all Egyptian Army units to avoid moving mass troops in timings where they could be spotted by satellites. Current status Despite declared peace between Egypt and Israel, every few years the GIS declares the arrest of Israeli espionage networks, yet until now Israel has not declared arrest of any Egyptian spies on its soil. Despite the fact that the two countries agreed not to have any espionage after signing the 1979 peace treaty. Declared GIS Chiefs in chronological order # Zakaria Mohieddin ( 1952 - 1956) # Ali Sabry ( 1956 - 1957) # Salah Nasr Al Nogomy ( 1957 - 1967) # Ameen Heweedy ( 1967 - 1970) # Hafez Ismail (1970 - 1970) # Ahmad Kamel ( 1970 - 1971) # Ahmad Ismail Ali ( 1971 - 1972) # Nemro ( 1972 - 1978) # Mohammad Saed Al Mahy ( 1978 - 1981) # Foad Nassar ( 1981 - 1983) # Rafaat osman Jibrel ( 1983 - 1986) # Kamal Hassan Ali ( 1986 - 1989) # Omar Negm (1989 - 1991) # Nour El Dien Afeefy (1991 - 1993) # Omar Suleiman ( 1993 - current) References Bibliography * *1973- Weapons and Diplomacy- Heikal, Mohammd Hassanien - Printed 1993 - Al Ahram- Egypt *Auto biography of Salah Nasr- Printed 1998- Dar Al Khayal - Egypt See also * List of (worldwide) intelligence agencies Category:Government of Egypt Category:Intelligence agencies Category:Law enforcement agencies of Egypt ar:المخابرات العامة المصرية fr:Gihaz al-Mukhabarat al-Amma